The type of datacenters running lemmy and other services are nothing like the AI datacenters being built. Some of the AI datacenters are literally 1000x bigger in terms of power consumption than existing data center buildings are using. They’re trying to build a 10 Gigawatt AI datacenter in Ohio, and it will need its own power station to run it.
I own my server and colocate it, and it’s sitting in what looks like a normal office building. You would never know from the sidewalk directly outside that there’s a hub for AWS and Google Cloud right there. The amount of cooling required is small enough they can just use regular air conditioning units on the roof, and none of this evaporating water crap.